The Early 20th Century

Employment in local mills ceased in 1926 with the closure of Bleach Mill following complaints by the River Board. This loss of employment perhaps explains why the twenty years from 1909 saw little new building taking place.

In the early 1930s, despite the population remaining fairly stable at about 2,000 residents, the housing stock, for unclear reasons, increased by 50% to 742 dwellings. These dwellings included terraced properties in Farnley Road and East Parade and, for the first time, many semi-detached properties mainly in the "Leathley" roads to the east of the village. The first council housing was built at Stocks Hill. Many larger houses were also built, often with large gardens, most notably in Burley Lane and, in the first major development to the north of the railway, at the Homestead Estate, where many houses were self built.

Until the mid-1950's the village was still rich in open spaces and fields, particularly north from Main Street to the Railway. However, in the space of little more than ten years over 400 mostly good sized semidetached or detached properties were built, many having large garden plots. These developments included Moorfield Avenue, the area between Fairfax and Park Road north to Westbourne Drive and Brooklands south of the Bradford Road. Also in the same period council housing at Hargrave Cresent extended the village up Derry Hill.

These developments accommodated a population increase of more than 50% to 3556 by 1971. A new Infants School was opened in 1967, followed later by the building of the Kirklands Community Centre. This surge in population was mostly due to people who came to live in the village because of its close proximity to the attractive countryside of Lower Wharfedale and the transport links to Leeds and Bradford. Menston was now a dormitory village for commuters and, increasingly, a desirable place for retirement.

Recent Developments

During the last thirty years housing developments have filled most of the remaining empty plots in the village and have replaced some existing large buildings, notably at Whiddon Croft and Ellar Gardens. With the exception of Rombalds Court and St Peter's Way, off Main Street, most of these developments have been detached houses often with four or more bedrooms.